Over Veterans Day Weekend, ninety-seven chess players from beginners to masters competed in the inaugural East Bay Open Chess Tournament. The players traveled from as far away as Las Vegas, NV, San Diego and Eureka to compete in the event held in Concord, CA at the Crowne Plaza and sponsored by the Contra Costa Chess Club. The event was divided into four sections by skill level with thirty players including nine masters competing in the top section.

The event kicked off with a visit from Concord Mayor Ron Leone. The Mayor welcomed everyone to the event and on behalf of the City Council presented the Contra Costa Chess Club with a proclamation naming Nov 9th-11th "Contra Costa Chess Club East Bay Open Tournament Days".

After five rounds of play, the clear winner of the top section was top seed Grandmaster Enrico Sevillano from Tehachapi, CA. He scored four and a half points out of five to take home the $1000 first place prize. Grandmaster Sevillano has been on a tear through Northern California in the last three weeks sharing first in the National G/30 Championship, winning the National G/60 Championship (both held in Pleasanton, CA), winning the Auburn Power Open and now winning the East Bay Open.

During the tournament, a crew was doing a documentary on one of the players, Frederic Lawrence Dutter. Mr. Dutter is an expert level player but has not played in a tournament in well over ten years. The documentary is following his comeback to the game. During the tournament he started off strong with two points in his first two games but then struggled in his remaining games.

The other three sections of the tournament had clear winners as well. Taking first in the Under 2000 rating section was Alexander Mariano with four and a half points out of five points. The Under 1600 section was won by local chess coach Nenad Zagorac and the Under 1200 Section was won by Darmawan Ali Effendi. (A complete list of winners may be found at the end of the article.)

After the conclusion of the event, a Speed Chess Tournament was held. In speed chess, each player has only five minutes for all the moves of their game. If they run out of time, they lose their game. This side event attracted seventeen players and was won by International Master Ray Kaufman. Fide Master Ronald Cusi took clear second place.

The event was sponsored by the Contra Costa Chess Club (www.ccchess.com) with John Michael Treshler playing the role of chief organizer. The tournament was run by chief tournament director Scott Mason assisted by Pete Klein and John Harris. The success of the event was quite a group effort with many members of the club (and others) playing and helping encourage others to play in the event. In particular, we would like to thank the efforts of John Sefton, Jeff Mc Cann, Stewart Spada, Trevor Stearman, Ted Castro, Emmanuel Perez and Salman Azhar along with the chief organizer and tournament directors for making the event a success.

The Contra Costa Chess Club meets twice a week and encourages players of all levels to attend and have fun. On Thursday nights it meets in Clayton, CA at the Starbucks at Clayton Rd. and Yagnacio Valley Rd starting at 6:15pm and on Monday Nights it meets in Walnut Creek, CA downtown at Cafe La Scala starting around 7pm.
EAST BAY OPEN PRIZE WINNERS